Naomi received her diploma and walked back to her seat.
Being ordinary again felt like a gift.
The paper star remained in her backpack until the final week of school.
She found it while cleaning out her locker.
You’re actually really pretty when you don’t look mad.
Naomi had forgotten about it.
She showed Ariana.
“You still have that?”
“Apparently.”
“Burn it.”
Naomi laughed.
She did not burn it.
She took it home.
Erica found her sitting at the kitchen table turning the star over between her fingers.
“Do you know who wrote it?”
“No.”
“Think it was Lauren?”
“Maybe.”
Naomi shook her head.
“Doesn’t matter anymore.”
She unfolded it one last time.
Then she wrote something on the reverse.
I’m allowed to look however I feel.
She folded the paper again.
This time she placed it inside a drawer.
Not as evidence.
Not as trauma.
As a reminder of how early a story could be assigned to someone.
That fall, Naomi moved into a dorm at Howard.
Her roommate Kayla Washington learned about Woodcrest slowly.
First she learned Naomi hated wet bathroom floors because she nearly slipped in one during move-in.
Then she learned Naomi knew judo when they attended a campus self-defense workshop.
Weeks later, Ariana visited and accidentally mentioned “the cheerleader situation.”
Kayla looked at Naomi.
“What cheerleader situation?”
Naomi sighed.
Ariana apologized immediately.
The story came out over pizza.
Not as a viral tale.
September to May.
Hair.
Money.
Bracelet.
Chat.
Bathroom.
Kayla listened.
When Naomi finished, she asked a question nobody from social media ever seemed interested in.
“What part bothered you the most?”
Naomi thought.
Not the shove.
Not the swing.
Not even Lauren on the floor.
“The fact that I started checking my own face.”
Kayla frowned.
Naomi explained.
She would sit in class and wonder whether she looked irritated.
Walk into meetings and relax her eyebrows.
Lower her voice during disagreements.
Smile before asking a difficult question.
Everything had become preemptive evidence.
She had tried to control interpretation by controlling herself.
Kayla understood immediately.